almonds – Simply Delicious: The Cookbook Project

16-32: Glazed Fresh Fruit Cake

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods February 21, 2024February 19, 2024almond paste, almonds, blackberries, blueberries, cakes, chilled, dairy-free, dessert, eggs, fairly hard, fairly inexpensive, flavorings, fruit, fruit salad, garnish, gelatin, gift ideas, glazed, gluten-free, granulated sugar, grapes, grated, mandarin oranges, nuts, party food, springform pan, strawberries, summer, untested

I grew up in Southern California, and lived there up until about 10 years ago. At one of my last jobs before I left, I was often gifted with a Porto’s Bakery fruit tart, which was (and I’m sure still is) delectable. 16-32: Glazed Fresh Fruit Cake reminds me of those fruit tarts, and makes me excited for warmer weather days ahead (check with me again about that when we’re in the middle of summer).

Glazed fruit tarts aren’t unique to just Porto’s or Simply Delicious, and there’s even different options for glazing your fruit tarts, depending on what you’re going for.

19-23: Nuts

Jamie Martin Group 19: Basic Ingredients, Section 4: Cooking School February 18, 2024February 18, 2024almond extract, almond meal, almond milk, almond oil, almond paste, almonds, brazil nuts, cashews, coconut, coconut flour, coconut milk, coconut oil, cooking school, hazelnut oil, hazelnuts, ingredients, macadamia nuts, nuts, peanut oil, peanuts, pecans, pine nuts, pistachios, vegan, vegetarian, walnut oil, walnuts

Do you enjoy nuts? I wasn’t a big fan of them growing up, but find myself warming up to them in my adult years. 19-23: Nuts is another entry from Simply Delicious’ Cooking School, and it outlines a lot of different types of nuts, ranging from the more common to some less frequently used kinds. Nuts are found in all types of cuisines, and are a good source of protein and other healthy stuff.

In case Simply Delicious isn’t enough for you, here’s a link to the Wikipedia entry for nuts. Compare that to the “nut” wisdom from 35 years ago you can find after the jump.

16-19: Midsummer Cake

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods March 30, 2023March 30, 2023almond extract, almonds, boxed cake mix, butter, cakes, creamed, decorative, dessert, easy, egg yolks, eggs, fairly inexpensive, French, frosting, fruit, garnish, granulated sugar, grated, liqueur, mint, nuts, orange juice, orange peel, oranges, party food, sliced, spring, strawberries, summer, toasted, untested, vanilla extract, vegetarian, zested

We’re barely into spring, so what better way to celebrate that than to jump ahead to summer with 16-19: Midsummer Cake? We’ll call it being super proactive–you’re already thinking ahead for summer. Like when you go shopping for spring clothes and the summer stuff is already on the shelves. Look at you being so productive. Such a trendsetter!

There’s no rule saying you HAVE to make this in summer–it could be a great spring dessert as well. In fact, strawberries are generally considered more of a “spring fruit” more so than a summer one (depending on where you live), so maybe we should update this to be a “Spring Cake”? I can’t go with “Mid-Spring Cake” because that sounds like something you make in the middle of a jump.

16-5: Sacher Torte

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods August 30, 2021August 30, 2021all-purpose flour, almonds, apricots, Austrian, blanched, butter, cakes, chocolate, dark chocolate, dessert, double boiler, egg yolks, eggs, fairly expensive, fairly hard, favorites, folded, gift ideas, glazed, granulated sugar, holiday baking, jam/jelly/preserves, melted, meringue, nuts, party food, pastry, peeled, springform pan, stiff peaks, Thanksgiving, torte, untested, vegetarian, Viennese

It always takes me a minute to “catch up” on these, so if you’re keeping track (don’t), we’re now up to Thanksgiving of last year (2020) with 16-5: Sacher Torte. Sachertorte is a real thing, and Simply Delicious actually has a pretty decent take on it.

The Wikipedia link above gives a pretty close approximation of the origin story Simply Delicious mentions on their card above, so they’re hitting near the mark. Sometimes the best Simply Delicious recipes are the ones they DON’T make up for themselves.

Side note: My dad ended up LOVING this one (and he’s been eating the dishes from this book for 30+ years), so it comes highly recommended.

16-29: Heavenly Apple Cake

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods January 25, 2021January 26, 2021all-purpose flour, almond paste, almonds, apples, applesauce, bread crumbs, butter, cakes, chilled, cornstarch, creamed, dessert, dough, eggs, fairly easy, fairly expensive, filling, flute, gift ideas, granulated sugar, grated, layers, lemon peel, lemons, nuts, party food, springform pan, tart pan, toppings, vegetarian, zested

It’s a bit past apple season (usually fall/autumn), but 16-29: Heavenly Apple Cake uses applesauce instead of fresh fruit, so you can make it anytime you’ve got a hankering for apples. Or cake. Cake is always good.

They (Simply Delicious) are trying REALLY hard to make you believe there are actual apple pieces in this cake. I mean, the picture and the description would lead you to think that this thing is just chock full of fresh apples.

I hate to break it to you, but this is gonna be one heck of a bamboozle.

14-24: Wine-Baked Apples

Jamie Martin Group 14: Hot Desserts, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods December 27, 2020December 26, 2020almonds, apple cider, apples, autumn, bread crumbs, brown sugar, butter, chopped, cored, dessert, easy, egg-free, fall, filling, gluten-free, golden raisins, grated, hot desserts, inexpensive, lemon juice, lemon peel, melted, orange juice, orange peel, peeled, raisins, twice-baked, untested, vegetarian, white wine, winter, zested

Yet another apple dessert recipe for you today. I made 14-24: Wine-Baked Apples at the same time as 14-2: Apple Strudel, since if I’m going through the work of breaking down apples, I’m getting at least two entries out of it.

The blurb above mentions this being a “new” way to bake apples–it doesn’t seem that far off from the “old” ways, to be quite honest.

14-23: Almond-Baked Sliced Pears

Jamie Martin Group 14: Hot Desserts, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods September 30, 2020September 30, 2020à la mode, all-purpose flour, almonds, apricots, batter, butter, creamed, dessert, egg whites, egg yolks, eggs, fairly easy, fairly inexpensive, granulated sugar, hot desserts, lemon juice, meringue, nuts, peaches, pears, ramekins, sliced, stiff peaks, toppings, untested, vegetarian

A LOT of the dessert recipes in Simply Delicious feature almonds, and 14-23: Almond-Baked Sliced Pears is a perfect example of these type of “semi-fancy” recipes. I’m not sure why almonds are featured so heavily in the book (or 1980s cuisine in general), but I suppose it’s to lend a sense of haute cuisine to something that would be (in reality) executed in a home kitchen.

The 1980s were all about stylish and flashy veneers without much to back it up underneath, even when it came to food, and this recipe is a perfect encapsulation of it. The fancy top covers up the cheap canned pears underneath, dazzling you with a hint of something high-class to distract you from the less impressive core which makes up the bulk of the dessert. Maybe some things should have just stayed in the 80s.

15-20: Apple Compôte

Jamie Martin Group 15: Cold Desserts, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods April 1, 2020April 1, 2020almonds, apple cider, applejack, apples, basted, brandy, brown sugar, Calvados, cold desserts, compôte, dessert, easy, egg yolks, eggs, granulated sugar, inexpensive, meringue, mint, nuts, sliced, stiff peaks, toasted, untested, vegan, vegetarian, wax paper

Let’s get the first question out of the way right now. Compôte means “mixture” in French, so 15-20: Apple Compôte is essentially fancy applesauce. Don’t even worry about exerting the effort to mash the apples–these are just syrupy slices.

Some of you might have thought of pie filling when you saw “compôte”–I know I did. There’s actually differences between jam, jelly, preserves, conserves, and compote–I still don’t know if this iteration matches up with their definition, but here’s a recipe from my same trusted source (Serious Eats/Stella Parks) for essentially the same thing we’re making here.

15-23: Kiwi Mousse in Chocolate Cups

Jamie Martin Group 15: Cold Desserts, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods February 17, 2020February 17, 2020almonds, baking cups, brushed, butter, chilled, chocolate, chocolate chips, chocolate cups, chopped, cold desserts, dark chocolate, dessert, double boiler, egg-free, fairly easy, fairly expensive, filling, frozen, garnish, gluten-free, kiwis, MD2019, melted, Mother's Day, mousse, nuts, powdered sugar, sliced, strawberries, toasted, untested, vegetarian, whipped, whipping cream

15-23: Kiwi Mousse in Chocolate Cups is the final recipe from last year’s Mother’s Day (MD2019) AND the final recipe from this kitchen, which was the backdrop for this project for 5 of its 6 years (at the time of this writing) of existence. I made this in tandem with 15-10: Frozen Raspberry Desserts, since they both make use of chocolate cups and frozen fillings.

These ones didn’t turn out quite as well as their raspberry counterparts, but they made a nice contrast and provided some variety. Along with these two chocolate cup desserts, I also made 15-17: Summery Cantaloupe as part of my dessert offerings for Mother’s Day.

16-33: Crispy Almond Cake

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods February 20, 2019October 29, 2020all-purpose flour, almonds, American, at work, butter, cakes, chilled, crispy, dessert, dough, eggs, fairly easy, fairly expensive, filling, food processor, garnish, gift ideas, granulated sugar, honey, light corn syrup, melted, party food, peeled, pie crust, Silpat, sliced, springform pan, strawberries, tart, tart pan, untested, vegetarian, whipping cream

I made 16-33: Crispy Almond Cake last September to pair with 16-26: Elegant Almond Cake as a breakfast treat for my work colleagues. This one was the less fancy of the two, but still went extremely well with some coffee on a Wednesday morning.

This title card blurb mentions that versions of this almond cake can be found all over the United States–Google doesn’t seem to want to confirm that claim for me. Searching almond cake results in several iterations of a Spanish flourless almond cake influenced by the Jewish tradition of Passover. Interesting, but none of them look like this recipe.

A search for almond tart (see 16-26: Elegant Almond Cake for my argument that these two dishes are tarts, not cakes as Simply Delicious claims) comes much closer–here’s a very similar version (with video!) from Martha Stewart herself.

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